Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions

BoF1: Sharing Experience on the Development and Organization of Bridge Programs to Understand Multicultural Differences and Recruit Minority Students - Thursday, 4:45pm to 5:45pm
BoF2: Career Strategies for Computing Professionals in a Competitive Global Market - Thursday, 4:45pm to 5:45pm
BoF3: Widening the Pipeline for all Minority Students - Friday, 4:45pm to 5:45pm
BoF4: Six Sigma and IT - Friday, 4:45pm to 5:45pm

BoF1: Sharing Experience on the Development and Organization of Bridge Programs to Understand Multicultural Differences and Recruit Minority Students
BoF Organizers: Manuel Penaloza, and Biagio Arobba, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

We are looking into ways to bring Native American and Hispanic students into computing disciplines. Under this topic we would like to share our experiences with bridge programs and to exchange ideas and experiences with other academic institutions.

In 2001, the state of South Dakota funded the Office of Multicultural Affairs with the main goal of facilitating cross-cultural interactions and empowering non-white students to pursue careers in science and engineering. Since 1990, hundreds of Native American students in K-14 have participated in summer-residential and after-school programs under the Scientific Knowledge for Indian Learning and Leadership (SKILL) program. Since 2000, SDSMT has graduated 19 American Indians with engineering and science degrees. In spring semester 2003, there were only 315 American Indian graduates nationwide. SDSMT graduated a total of 7, the highest number of American Indians graduated from any one institution! Currently there is "The Bridges to Success Program" at SDSMT designed to provide support for Native American students by giving them experience as interns in research labs and projects at SDSMT.

Manuel Penaloza, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, manuel.penaloza@sdsmt.edu

Manuel L. Penaloza's undergraduate studies started in an engineering school in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Before completing it, he was awarded a scholarship by the Latin American Scholarship for American Universities (LASPAU) program to complete his B.S. and continue his M.S., both in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, at The University of New Mexico. He went back to Ecuador where he taught computer science courses for nine years at a Polytechnic School in Guayaquil. Years later, he came back to the U.S. to continue graduate work and received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Arizona State University.

He is currently a professor in Computer Science at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. His research interests are data mining, data warehousing, database management systems, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms and expert systems. Personal hobbies include playing golf, trying to play guitar and dancing to Latin (cumbia, salsa, merengue) music. Dr. Penaloza is member of ACM and the Computer Society of IEEE.

Biagio Arobba, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Biagio Arobba is a senior undergraduate computer science student at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. He has experience with bridge programs as a participant. After attending Oglala Lakota College to prepare for a four-year degree, Biagio was selected to attend the Bridges to Success Summer Internship Program at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. As a result of the bridge program. Biagio has transitioned well to a new university and has worked for two research labs, outside of the internship, for the past three years. Biagio grew up in South Dakota and is part Lakota and Quechuan.

BoF2: Career Strategies for Computing Professionals in a Competitive Global Market
BoF Organizer: Mark A. Friedman, The Richard J. Roman Institute

Today, both entry into and continued success within the computing and IT professions require the computing professional to move quickly beyond foundational skills and begin building advanced (research-oriented and/or business-oriented) skills and expertise. In this BoF, we will discuss how entry-level or transitioning computing professionals can effectively advance beyond the classroom experience - in the already challenging computing discipline - to gain advanced skills, expertise and experience that are attractive and necessary for career entry and advancement.

Discussion will consider the following questions and results from a survey prepared by the organizer.

How must the computing professional be responsible for her own education and career development?

How can the computing student or professional differentiate himself from other students and professionals?

What expertise should the computing professional develop for short and long-term success and to make her least vulnerable to global outsourcing?

What role should senior and graduate school projects, internships, open source projects and online "software portfolios" play in career development?

How can the computing student get involved in such projects in a way that is harmonious with degree requirements?

How important are the acquisition of soft skills (e.g. professionalism, communication, team skills, project management, leadership)?

Mark A. Friedman, The Richard J. Roman Institute, DrMarkAFriedman@gmail.com

Mark A. Friedman is the president of the Richard J. Roman Institute, a consultancy specializing in performance improvement and career advancement of computer scientists and software development teams using object-oriented and distributed technologies and software processes. Mark takes particular interest in mentoring young professionals - bridging the gap between foundations built in formal education and technologies and intrapersonal/interpersonal skills needed for success in industry. His dual experience in academia and industry makes him well suited for this role. Mark served eight years teaching and building computer science programs as an assistant professor at Trinity College and Central Connecticut State University. In industry, he worked at IBM Poughkeepsie and IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center; consulted at Hewlett-Packard, Digital Equipment Corporation and General Electric; served as the chief technology officer (CTO) at MokoNet; and founded the Richard J. Roman Institute. Mark earned a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in computer architecture, and a master's from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, specializing in computer-aided design and electrical design automation.

BoF3: Widening the Pipeline for all Minority Students
BoF Organizers: Anja Remshagen, Li Yang and Stephanie Miller, University of West Georgia

Recently there has been a significant effort underway to attract and retain more underrepresented students, particularly female students, in Computer Science at various universities. For example, SIGCSE has established a Committee on Expanding the Women-in-Computing community. New survey results published in the May 2005 edition of the Computing Research News confirm that the alarming proportion of women who major in CS is still declining. Thus, the need to counteract this trend is more necessary than ever.

Most of the attempts, like the group Women@SCS at Carnegie Mellon University, require an existing body of female students to launch a support group of female students. Unfortunately, many regional universities and small colleges have not even enough female students to start a viable group. Successful methods applied at research-oriented universities need to be adjusted to address the different student body at regional universities and colleges.

In addition, current suggestions do not address the underrepresented and ethnic minorities, such as Black and Hispanic students. How can we apply current attempts targeting female students to the other minority groups? Are there any common approaches we can adopt for this group of students? Are there any specific factors such as culture and background that influence their decisions of choosing and staying in the CS major? What are the salient characteristics of this student group which demand more tailored support? In this session, we will discuss different issues on how regional universities and small colleges can support and possibly attract minority groups, including female, Black, and Hispanic students.

Anja Remshagen, University of West Georgia, anja@westga.edu

Dr. Remshagen received the M.S. in mathematics in 1999 from the University of Cologne in Germany and her Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2001. Presently, Dr. Remshagen is teaching at the University of West Georgia as assistant professor in computer science. She is very interested in ways of increasing interest among women in computer science. As a co-founder of the CSWoW (CS Women of West Georgia) group, she hopes to support and retain the female CS students at UWG. Dr. Remshagen's research interests lie in the field of computational logic. She is currently working on effective algorithms for quantified Boolean formulas and related optimization problems. Besides work, she enjoys spending her time with her family.

Li Yang, University of West Georgia, lyang@westga.edu

Dr. Li Yang received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Florida International University in 2003 and M.E. and B.E., in computer science from Sichuan Union University in China. She currently is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of West Georgia (UWG). Her research interests include XML and database systems, Web services and security, semantic web, and Computer Science education. In 2004, she and Dr. Anja Remshagen started the CSWoW (Computer Science Women of West Georgia) group at UWG, which aims at increasing and fostering interests in CS among female students at UWG, and provides support (such as senior CS student mentoring, faculty mentoring, etc.) to help them succeed in CS.

Stephanie Miller, University of West Georgia, smiller6@my.westga.edu

Stephanie Miller received an A.B. in Economics from the University of Georgia in 2000 and is currently a graduate student at the University of West Georgia pursuing her master's in Applied Computer Science. As a graduate research assistant, Stephanie has had the opportunity to be involved in creation of the Computer Science Experience peer tutoring program designed to help retain undergraduate Computer Science majors. As a female in the Computer Science program and a member of the CSWoW (CS Women of West Georgia) she is also very interested in helping increase interest in computer science among women at the University of West Georgia. When not studying or working as a graduate assistant, Stephanie enjoys horseback riding, volunteering and hanging out with friends.

BoF4: Six Sigma and IT
BoF Organizer: Rodi Tountcheva, The Ohio State University

Computer scientists working today in the Information Technology field face two challenges:

1. Come up with an optimal way to manage information that would provide the greatest benefit to the business.

2. Convince management that their organization is providing a benefit to the business.

Over the years there have been different approaches when addressing the above two problems. A promising solution to both is using a methodology called Six Sigma because it not only strives for continuous improvement but does it in a systematic and measurable way.

This quality-control methodology was first intended for the manufacturing world. If applied correctly, Six Sigma leads to tremendous successes and this is why it is turning out to be so revolutionary. Furthermore, this is why the topic of how we can use the technique in order to better IT is worth investigating. The key challenge still remains in how to apply this manufacturing methodology to solve our IT problems.

In this BoF, participants will have the opportunity to discuss problems in the world of IT today and possible solutions to them. Also, they will be able to share their opinions on using a methodology such as Six Sigma in order to solve IT’s problems.

Rodi Tountcheva, The Ohio State University, tountcheva.1@osu.edu

Rodi Tountcheva is an M.S. student in Computer Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Her main research interests are in the area of Six Sigma and the way it applies to IT. She graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from The Ohio State University in December 2004. At school Rodi has worked as a TA in her department for two years and as a computer science lab consultant for two years. She has also done four full-time Information Management Leadership Program internships at GE Transportation Aircraft Engines.